Sen. Robert Menendez: Is President Obama ready for a fight on immigration?

Amy Newman/Herald NewsU.S. Senator Robert Menendez In an editorial board meeting at The Star-Ledger Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez discussed a meeting with President Obama in which he urged the president to move quickly after the November election to enact immigration reform.

He also reacted to a bipartisan proposal from Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). They have proposed a bill that would open a path to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States today, along with tougher border security and a system for employers to verify the legal status of workers.

Here are excerpts.

Why it’s important

I personally think that comprehensive immigration reform is critically important to the nation. It’s important to the nation’s security. I’d rather know who was here to pursue the American dream versus who was here to do harm to it. I can’t do that when I have 12 million undocumented, unidentified people in the country. . . . I’d rather have these individuals, number one, be documented in some fashion so that at the end of the day, we aren’t depressing wages of other workers because there is a subterranean economy — a black market economy. . . . And I’d rather have them in a status where not only are they going to go through a criminal background check, but they’re also going to fully pay their taxes. That would be part of the equation.

So, I think it’s important in terms of the economy, I think it’s important in terms of not depressing wages, and I think it’s important in terms of national security. And I think it’s important about who we are as a people. Unless we’re going to deport 12 million people, which would be the most massive deportation in the history of mankind, that’s just simply not going to happen.

Sen. Menendez on Latinos and immigration reform: 'It's the civil rights issue of their time'

For me, family reunification is a key element of our immigration policy. Strong families make for strong communities. And that has been (missing from the Schumer-Graham) legislation. I’m concerned about how they treat that issue. And I’m concerned about how they go about the raid issue. Right now, we have U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents being unlawfully and unconstitutionally caught up in raids. I don’t believe U.S. citizens who happen to be of a certain ethnicity or race are second-class. There are 200 cases in the country so far like this.

So the raid issue has to change in terms of how that’s being done. The detention issue has to change, and the family reunification issue has to change.

The timing

I think the time to get it done is in November, right after the elections. I’m being very pragmatic. I think there are a bunch of people who are retiring who would cast votes (because) their heart and their intellect tell them it is the right thing, but their politics might have told them no. They are free to cast votes that we might not normally get. I think it’s a propitious time to get something done if we have presidential leadership. That’s what I said to the president two weeks ago when I was at the White House with him.

Presidential support

I think his heart’s in the right place. However, some of the people around him, his advisors, I worry about them because they’re just about the politics of it. He said that he was as committed as ever to immigration reform.. . . He doesn’t necessarily agree with November or never. But then again, I didn’t expect him to.

Democratic support

I think it’s a challenge for the Democratic party. The issue of immigration reform to Latinos is the civil rights issue of their time.